Antitrust Division’s Pound Of Flesh: AU Optronics' Impact

Law360, New York (April 3, 2012, 1:44 PM EDT) -- The Antitrust Division of the United States Department of Justice recently obtained a verdict in a case that was closely watched by the antitrust bar. On March 13, 2012, a federal jury in the Northern District of California determined that AU Optronics (“AUO”), a Taiwanese manufacturer of thin-film transistor liquid crystal display (“TFT-LCD”) panels, an American subsidiary of AUO and two senior AUO executives were all guilty of price-fixing. The jury deadlocked on another AUO executive and exonerated two others. Perhaps more important to the antitrust...